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It has been non stop fall/halloween action at our house since Thursday morning. The boys had a fall celebration at school on Thursday morning and they were so excited they didn't quite know what to do with themselves. They came home loaded down with projects and treat bags and more energy than they knew what to do with. I did manage to force them to sit still for this picture with all of their loot:

Then, Thursday evening the Student Advocate Association at OSU-COM had organized something they called Spook-o-ween for the children of the students. So, I made some sugar cookies, the boys donned some costumes, and we met Micah there for some fun. There were games including an anatomy puzzle, a small inflatable, and a costume contest that Xavier was devastated that he did not win. It was so sweet and sad at the same time, he kept asking me over and over 'why that girl didn't call my name? maybe next year, i will wear a different costume.'

I have been trying to think of some cute stories from the boys to share for a Wednesday's Words post, but have been having a hard time thinking of specific ones.

So, I thought I would share a few things that we are working on right now:

I may have mentioned that our church is doing a program on Wednesday nights called 7 Wonders that teaches them foundational truths of the Bible. The First wonder is God is our Father, and the Second Wonder is the Bible is True. I have been so proud of how they are committing Scripture to memory and was thrilled tonight to hear their teacher say that they were quoting the verses from 6 weeks ago when we started and remembering them really well. (note to self: take some video!)I am helping to facilitate a study on Psalms 119 called Sweeter Than Chocolate ---although helping might be a strong term. I am working with two other amazing ladies who are really doing the bulk of the work. I have just been so blessed by their love for the Lord and His…

Yesterday afternoon, I realized that because of lots of commitments this week, it would probably be our only opportunity to visit the pumpkin patch. So, I sent Micah a text and asked if he wanted to meet us there after he was done with school for the afternoon. It was extremely windy...as in, I thought at one point that it might blow us over...crazy windy. I managed to get a couple of good pictures of the boys, although they are at an extremely irritating age where they will not sit still to save their life....okay, I am not sure when they have not been at that age, but I still managed to get a few good shots. And, yes, I know that it isn't all about the picture, we had lots of fun with them running around this maze that they had set up and I didn't torture them for very long. As Melissa found out a couple of weeks ago, William is definitely the more agreeable one to photograph, which is honestly kind of interesting when I think about which one is more agreeable in regul…

We survived the weekend, and this morning as I write, Micah is taking his last midterm for this seemingly endless stretch of tests. Eleven exams in three weeks feels a little crazy to me. I know that tonight he is going to just want to collapse and get some rest. The boys are so excited to see him though and so I know that it will be a balance for him to give them what they want and need and for him to get some of what he wants and needs too.

I spent the weekend cooking (meatballs, mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots) for Micah and friends Saturday night, reading (Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman--really great book, I knew I was in trouble when I was literally close to weeping through the dedications page, but so worth the read!), cleaning, scrapping, and church yesterday.

Today is all about laundry...I am determined to get it all done, folded, and put away this week. That is my normal plan, but the last couple of weeks it has taken me until later in the week and I do no…

I guess I can tell that we have gotten into the school routine of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday school for the boys since yesterday they didn't have school for fall break and I spent the entire day thinking that it was Friday and that meant the weekend, but guess what? yesterday was Thursday and today is not the weekend, which means that I officially need to make myself productive today.

I do have a doctor's appointment early afternoon. Just a checkup, although I am having some issues with one of my medications, and so I want to talk with him about that. Unfortunately, I am not going to get to see my regular oncologist because he is out of office with a family medical emergency. This may seem a bit crazy, but this has brought no end of stress to my life, mostly because I am so comfortable with my regular doc--he knows me, he knows my case, and I trust him. I have friends who go to this new doctor, and I am sure that he is an excellent doctor, it is just that I guess I am sp…

Several months ago, I read online somewhere about something called the Pink Heals Tour where several fire departments had taken their fire trucks and painted them pink and were doing a tour to promote breast cancer awareness. I thought it was interesting and when I found out they were going to be in Tulsa, I thought that the boys would enjoy going down there. When we arrived, I was happy to see many of my young survivor friends from our local Young Survival Coalition group and we managed to take a few pictures. I also ran into some friends from the FORCE group, but didn't manage to get any pictures with them with my camera....am hoping they send me some! These are women who have become dear friends to me as we walk through many of the same experiences, fears, frustrations, and issues that comes with a cancer diagnosis at a young age. We even met a woman who just had her second treatment today who came and I hope that we as a group were able to encourage her that she is not alo…

I have had so many ideas for blog posts recently...some funny, some serious, some reflections, some recapping, even some recipes, but alas....time is just way too short these days and blogging just hasn't been a priority. The boys and I took off last Thursday morning for a couple of days in St. Louis with my family, it has become a fall break tradition for all of us to meet up somewhere in Missouri for a busy 2 day getaway. It is always great fun, but completely exhausting. So, the trip coming on the tail end of revival at our church has left me very little time for actually uploading photos and recapping the events.

Hopefully soon.

To top it all off, Micah has been so incredibly busy. He has had 11 major exams in three weeks time. We have seen very little of him and I know that the boys are feeling it...I am feeling it. This morning, driving the boys to school, I was just feeling kind of down and realized that I just miss my husband. I miss laughing and talking with hi…

Micah has been spending so much time at school studying that the last two weekends the boys and I decided to make dinner and take to him and some friends at school. Last week, Micah made the 'mistake' of asking me if I had baked anything for dessert when in all reality, I had actually just thrown some stuff into the crockpot for chili and took it down to him at school. So, then, my inner/subconscious need to shine in the cooking department kicked in and so this weekend, I got a wild hare to make these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes that a friend had posted on Facebook.

It was kind of like a comedy of errors though. First of all, I spent a really nice quiet Saturday morning curled up in the chair with William, my coffee and a book while the boys watched cartoons. Then, mid-morning, we got ready, and went to 5 stores in 2 hours....yes, you read that right...five stores, two hours. We got home and I worked on …

Yesterday managed to be a very busy day for me, and I came home just weary, mostly because I had spent a great portion of the day in cancer-land, talking about it, thinking about it, listening to others share their stories, and I was just wiped out by the time that I got home. It started off as a pretty good day because after dropping the boys off at school, I decided to try out a new little coffee shop in town and got their Gold Latte which is espresso with Mexican chocolate that has a little bit of spice in it blended with honey and 1/2 and 1/2. First of all, anything that is made with half and half is usually pretty good, but mix that up with that chocolate and honey and it was amazing. I will definitely be back!

Micah's mom had agreed to watch the boys yesterday afternoon for me while I went into Tulsa to meet with my surgeon and some other friends so that she could go over a presentation that she is giving on Sunday about the BRCA genetic mutations. After listening to tha…

So, yesterday was a new experience for me.....going on a field trip with my four year olds. All I can say is that I unfortunately see many of these in my future! Honestly, it wasn't horrible, it is just that large groups of small children stress me out even when I am not in charge of them. They have been talking about fire safety at school and so today the four year old class took a short field trip to the fire station that is just down the road from their school. The boys had SO much fun and it did give me a chance to meet some other moms from their school and also to see how the boys behave in a different situation other than just with me. I was very proud of their behavior and how well they sat and listened (or pretended to listen, anyway!) to the firefighters. They both said their favorite thing was getting to climb up in the fire truck.

'hey, brudder, let's play western like we did yesterday.' 'no, I want to play superheroes today.'--they are loving the fall weather and playing outside, there has been no end to the pretend play that has gone on in our backyard. They do alot of running around, but also setting all the superheroes up on the table and having "conversations."During that playing outside time with their superheroes, Xavier has a bad habit of throwing his superheroes up and has lost several on the roof. At this point, we have told him, if they go up there, then they are up there, we aren't getting them down. Today, he came in and told me that he had 'prayed and asked the Lord to send a strong wind to help get that Adam Strange down.' completely cracked me up!They learned the song "Purple People Eater" at school last week in honor of the color purple and they have been singing it ALL.WEEK.LONG. I am thinking I nee…

Most days I have every intention of updating my blog with some little funny story of the boys or maybe an update on what our days are like, but it seems that my days run out of time before those blog posts ever get written. Take this weekend, for example, where did it go? It feels like it was just Friday night and I was looking forward to the whole weekend ahead of me and here we are and it is already Monday night, the weekend long gone and a week's full of work ahead of me. Ah, well, that is life in the Derby household.

Micah has an abundance of tests during October, so we have already started feeling the effects of that. He was gone until 10 pm on Friday night, out the door Saturday morning at 7, we took him dinner Saturday night so that the boys could see him, he got home again around 10ish, went to early service on Sunday and back to studying until the rest of us got home from small groups around 8:30, then he was out the door this morning at 5:30. We did get to see him f…